Want to blog about books? Here's how you do it ... plus new Dante

Writing_ball_keyboard Many folks write about books, and one of the most effective practitioners is a WP friend of mine, Jil Hoffmann. I want to point you in the direction of one of her recent posts --  a blend of reporting/commentary/mixed media as she describes Dan Chaon's insights into the craft of writing. "The Uncanny, Hope, and the Short Story" takes us from a reading of a Chaon short story into his literary reviews via an interview and a video clip. I like how the post gives us a rich taste of the experience of this particular story  ... and it doesn't drag readers through a long, long, long explanation. There's a knack to writing that has brevity and depth, and Jil's got it. Check it out.

Another impressive writer in the WP realm is Kathara, ruler of The Red Serpent. Lately there's been a storm of posts on that blog, and I just haven't been able to keep up. If you're interested in excursions through the enigmatic Grail countryside of Rennes-le-Chateau and all things occult, this is another worthy stop on your WP ambling.

book_inferno_revealedNew Dante: Ok, that's misleading. I admit it. No, Dante didn't write anything new. I'd be very surprised if he did. Being dead for more than 700 years produces serious writer's block. A new book, however, did land on my doorstep, Inferno Revealed: From Dante to Dan Brown by Deborah Parker and Mark Parker (published this month by Palgrave/MacMillan). The Parkers explore the first of the Commedia's three canticas and its legacy. Brown might be the most prominent popularizer of Dante because of his latest bestselling thriller, but he's far from the best or only one. What I enjoy most about the Parkers' book isn't their examination of the Inferno (I'll stick with Barbara Reynolds or Charles Williams or T.S. Eliot or John Freccero) but their exploration of Dante today, from David Fincher's film Se7en and the paintings of Sandow Birk to Tim Burton's film Beetlejuice and Ridley Scott's film Hannibal, etc. The book serves as a very helpful guide to Dante aficionados interested in tracing the immortal Tuscan's influence in modern pop culture. Stop here to visit the Palgrave/Macmillan website; or stop here to visit Deborah Parker's site, The World of Dante.

Coda: There's also a recent essay by Robert Pogue Harrison in the New York Review of Books. He takes on both Brown and Clive James' Commedia translation in a wonderful piece sent to me by the above-mentioned Ms. Hoffmann (thanks for that, Jil!).

Related at Call of the Siren

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Reviews of Dan Brown's latest ... ugh

Il Miglior Fabbro in a pensive mood (perhaps thinking about books and book reviewers): portrait by Agnolo Bronzino

Another Dan Brown novel, another pack of smug reviews.

Here’s my confession:  I’m already sick of the reviews of Brown’s "Inferno," and the book only pubbed a day ago. Reviewers say that Brown doesn’t do anything new in his latest, but here’s the thing: neither do they.

The criticisms are predictable; the angles are all the same. "How can he write such drivel?” they say, wringing their hands. At this point, after four books, attacking Brown's prose style or story line is unimaginative and tiresome -- like shooting fish in the proverbial barrel.

If they can do better than Brown, then they should give it a try. Please. That’s what’s changed for me, my friends. As I've worked with historical material and puzzles in a book of my own,  I’ve come to appreciate Brown even if I wouldn’t make the same narrative choices.

Every reviewer, in fact, should try to write a novel or a story before offering to review one. That doesn't mean that you'll become an instant cheerleader. But at least you'll have a broader perspective ... and maybe you'll avoid carpal tunnel syndrome from all that hand-wringing. Writing  is an extraordinarily humbling, powerful journey.

FOR YOUR READING (DIS)PLEASURE:

Good: New York Times (keeps perspective on the story, and the thriller genre): http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/13/books/inferno-by-dan-brown.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Decent: The Globe and Mail (it starts off like all the rest, and then changes) http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/book-reviews/has-dan-brown-become-gasp-a-better-writer/article11940973/ New York Daily News:  http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/music-arts/dante-catholicism-fill-brown-sizzling-inferno-article-1.1343823

Eye-rollers The Standard: http://www.standard.co.uk/arts/book/review-a-chase-a-blonde-some-dimwit-culture-it-must-be-dan-browns-new-blockbuster-inferno-8615057.html Clives James in USA Today: http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/books/2013/05/14/clive-james-dan-brown/2155487/

Praise (with an extreme back of the hand) The Telegraph:  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/10053517/Inferno-by-Dan-Brown-review.html

Completely lame: The Guardian (imitating Brown’s writing)  http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/may/14/dan-brown-inferno-first-look

Mea culpa: I’m no innocent bystander. I was once guilty of this sort of holier-than-thou reviewing too  http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-lost-symbol14-2009sep14,0,5481048.story (blech)

Profile in courage

Dan Brown Inferno coverDante Alighieri is a fascinating figure, and hopefully I'll be able to tell you what really fascinates me about that poor, exiled figure at some point in the near future when my work on a book about him is done. Keep your fingers crossed for me, beloved friends. In the meantime, I feel like I should at least present the cover image of Dan Brown's forthcoming book "Inferno," which is being published by Random House in May, for your viewing pleasure. The publisher sent out images of the cover yesterday. This will be the fourth action novel featuring renowned symbologist Robert Langdon.

I have to admit, it's a little disappointing to see Dante's profile, that familiar, angular chin and nose, clouded over by a bunch of thriller imagery, but thankfully it still shows through -- like a mountain peak through a bank of fog.

That red band running down the cover and merging with the red of Dante's cap and robes -- is that like the Rose Line of "The Da Vinci Code" or is it just a little design element?  Brown's book jackets are always packed with symbolism, so I'd guess that there's more to it. We will see in May.

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The 'D' in 'Dan Brown' stands for 'Dante'

IS THIS WRITTEN IN CODE? Dan Brown's signature. In "The Lost Symbol," the most recent of Dan Brown's thrillers featuring symbologist Robert Langdon, there's a moment when Langdon compares the murky, distant secrets of Europe with those of colonial America.

This nation may not be too old in comparison to the world across the pond, but there's a rich tradition of secrecy in this country that is exciting and intriguing. That's what he thinks. Soon after these musings, Langdon sets off on another chase-and-race-against-the-clock that is rooted firmly in red-white-and-blue soil.

In his forthcoming novel, however, Brown -- and Langdon -- are heading back to Europe. The publisher Doubleday announced today that it will publish a new Dan Brown novel in May. The title, "Inferno," refers to the one and only Dante Alighieri and his epic poem of medieval Italy, The Divine Comedy.

Here's Brown, from the news release, on what drew him to the immortal Tuscan:

"Although I studied Dante's Inferno as a student, it wasn't until recently, while researching in Florence, that I came to appreciate the enduring influence of Dante's work on the modern world," Brown says.

What exactly does "enduring influence" mean?  In Brown's world, it also points to a familiar theme in his past books: conspiracy. "With this new novel," Brown adds, "I am excited to take readers on a journey deep into this mysterious realm.... a landscape of codes, symbols, and more than a few secret passageways."

An exec editor at Doubleday also mentions that "Inferno" includes "a mystery that has global ramifications..." (Hm, I wonder if the Priory of Sion ever traveled to Italy.)

I'm looking forward to May so that I can see what Brown makes of a figure whom I've adored for all of my reading life.

My interest in the book isn't entirely neutral -- I have a story of my own involving the poet in the works -- but regardless of that, any time that is spent with Dante is time well spent. There's nothing better than turning off the television and wandering for a few hours with Virgil in Hell or up the slopes of the mountain in Purgatory.

Ciao!

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Making Dante go Bang: new in bookstores

Does Dante Alighieri look  mad in this picture?  Well, if he is, it's not because he just finished reading a new "translation" of "Inferno" (Graywolf Press) by poet Mary Jo Bang. On the other hand, it wouldn't surprise me if that was the reason behind his surly expression.

Bang's new translation of "Inferno" either impresses or irritates -- there is nothing in between. No Limbo. No Purgatory. You have no choice: It's either Heaven or Hell.

Bang has turned the Florentine maestro's epic into a poem for our time, replete with cultural references to our world, notes and news headlines. It's an exhilarating tour de force that takes the reader by surprise. The opening lines, for instance, in which Bang gives us her own version of Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita mi ritrovai per una selva oscura are:

Stopped mid-motion in the middle

of what we call our life, I looked up and saw no sky--

That opening seems fairly tame. The reader -- this reader, I mean -- easily assumes that Bang's translation will be mostly an interesting exercise in basic modernizing of an old story.

Soon enough, the reader realizes it is hardly that. Bang is up to far more than providing a translation to join those by Sinclair, Singleton, Mandelbaum, Musa, the Hollanders, etc.

In the eighth circle, for instance, where the sin of fraud is punished, Bang's Dante-pilgrim encounters ... get ready for this .... Colonel Qaddafi as well as a former U.S. Secretary of Defense referred to as "Crazy Rummy":

I knew all their names by now,

Having heard them once when they were selected

And again on the ridge when they called to each other.

***

"Work those talons, Crazy Rummy,"

The whole disgusting group was cheering.

"Rip every last ounce of flesh off his back!"

***

Does this poem succeed?  Mark Ford doesn't think so, in the pages of BookForum. Its success, I think, all depends on expectation and point of view.   The main issue I have is with the title on the cover of the book -- there's the word "translation."   Why call it that when "An Interpretation" or "After Dante" would more accurately describe what Bang does?    If you're going to give an old poem a fresh new update, you're not exactly translating anymore, are you?  That's no criticism against the author: This book shows Bang at her most provocative and startling. But if you're expecting to find Dante, you should really look elsewhere.